Heretofore, if a stenosis portion has occurred in the vessel of a living body, in particular the blood vessel, such as artery, a balloon forming portion provided in the vicinity of the distal end of the balloon catheter is inserted into this stenosis portion. This balloon forming portion is expanded to form a balloon to expand the stenosis portion of the blood vessel to improve the blood flow, by way of the transcutaneous blood vessel forming technique (PTA).
It has been clarified that, if the PTA is applied, stenosis tends to be produced at a high probability in the once stenosis portion.
In order to prevent this restenosis, the current practice is to apply a tubular stent in the site processed with the PTA. This stent is inserted into the blood vessel in a diameter-contracted state and subsequently implanted in the blood vessel as it is expanded in diameter to support the blood vessel from its inside to prevent restenosis from being produced in the blood vessel.
As this sort of the stent, there have so far been proposed a balloon expanding stent and a self-expanding stent.
The balloon expanding stent is applied over a balloon provided in a folded and diameter-contracted state in a catheter and, after being inserted in the targeted site for implantation, such as a site of lesion, where the blood vessel is stenosis, the balloon is expanded and increased in diameter to support the inner surface of the blood vessel. Once expanded in diameter, the balloon expanding stent is fixed in this expanded state and cannot be deformed in keeping with the pulsations of the blood vessel wall. On the other hand, if the balloon expanding stent is deformed after being expanded in diameter and implanted in this condition in the blood vessel, it cannot be restored to its original expanded state, such that there is the risk that the stent cannot support the inner surface of the blood vessel reliably.
The self-expanding stent is housed in the diameter-contracted state in a holder, such as a tube, having an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the targeted site for implantation in the blood vessel, and is inserted in the targeted site for implantation in the blood vessel as it is housed in a holder. The stent, thus inserted in the targeted site for implantation in the blood vessel, is extruded or extracted from the holder so as to be expanded in diameter to the pre-contracted state, by exploiting the force of restoration proper to the stent, thus continuing to support the inner wall of the blood vessel.
As this sort of the self-expanding stent, there is proposed such a one obtained on warping a linear member of metal, such as stainless steel, into a sinusoidal or zig-zag design, to form a tube.
With the self-expanding stent formed from a metal linear member, the outer diameter prevailing at the time of expansion is difficult to control precisely, such that the stent is likely to be expanded excessively in comparison with the inner diameter of the blood vessel in which it is implanted. Moreover, if the force of holding the stent in the contracted state is removed, the stent is expanded abruptly. If the stent inserted into the blood vessel is expanded abruptly, the inner wall of the blood vessel is likely to be injured.
As the self-expanding stent, those formed of shape memory alloys, such as T—Ni, Ti—Ni—Cu or Ti—Ni—Fe based alloys, have been proposed.
The stent, formed of shape memory alloys, is kept to its size when it is implanted in the targeted loading site in the blood vessel, by the shape memory action, and is subsequently contracted in diameter, so as to be inserted in this diameter-contracted state in the blood vessel. After insertion into the targeted loading site in the blood vessel, this stent is expanded to the size of the shape memory and subsequently exhibits super-elasticity under the body temperature of the living body to continue supporting the inner wall of the blood vessel.
Since the shape memory alloy has extremely high tenacity, such that it exerts an extremely large mechanical pressure to a portion of the inner wall of the blood vessel, thus possibly damaging the blood vessel. Moreover, there are occasions wherein the stent formed of a shape memory alloy is not uniformly expanded in diameter against the inner wall of the blood vessel when implanted in the blood vessel. If a portion of the stent compresses against the inner wall of the blood vessel prematurely to commence to be expanded in diameter, the blood vessel cannot be expanded uniformly. In this case, the portion of the blood vessel, against which a portion of the stent has compressed prematurely, is enlarged excessively in diameter, and hence is likely to be damaged.
The stent formed of metal such as shape memory alloy, once implanted in the vessel, such as blood vessel, is permanently left in the living body unless it is taken out by surgical operations.